Ken: "I Trust James Harden More [than Donovan Mitchell] in This Series

0:00The Cleveland is in trouble. What's your name? If you're a lion on edge of Polish and this area, this is going seven. And if you let those young boys, which they do right now, they have a lot of confidence. CNB didn't play his best game, but the Kobe Walters came out to play. He's finally out that coach's line. I don't know what Scotty Barnes' injury is. B.I. hasn't healed it. It's a thigh. Bride. He'll be ready. He's going to be ready. Life camera act. They're going to be in a city in Toronto. You know those fans are going to get up. So they're going to win that game six. It's going to seven. But you let them come to that confidence and you don't see James Hard and Donna Mitchell in that fourth quarter. Last night, they have a fourth quarter like that again. They can be going home and I'll look. That's Danny Green on ESPN. Former Cavalier great. We let him go. Danny Green on ESPN yesterday. They say no thing where you're just, well, they only beat themselves. Not man. And I ain't trying to scare nobody because I think a lot of fans out there are totally in agreement going, yeah, they got to, there's some things they got to do. They got to get worked out. And I think there's a wide open lane for this team, wide open because of what's going

1:02on in Boston, because what's going on in New York, what's going on with Detroit. There's a wide open lane for you. We got to take care of your business tonight. And that's a good basketball team that has earned a lot of respect throughout these last couple of weeks here. And they deserve that respect over these last couple of weeks. Now, I can, I can blame the Cavs to be a really expensive team that is playing lower than what they should, but damn it. That's a good team out there. You got to make sure you take care of them tonight. Yes. The way that the national people are talking about the Cavs, they're down on everybody. They're down on Mowbly. They're down on Allen. They're down on Harden. They want to get to Harden here in a moment. They're, they're down on Donovan Mitchell. I mean, it's one by one by one. They're down on everybody. They're down on Kenny Ackinson. But they're up three, two. They have a chance to win tonight and, and end the series and look at all the other teams in the East. Like, do you have to give, does it all have to be negative? I, I, I'm not trying to be negative. I'm just trying to tell you the truth. I'm not being negative. I'm just saying they should win tonight.

2:04You have Brandon Ninger who's going to be out, but damn it, you got to take care of your business. And I just think it's ridiculous that some people say, whoa, the Cavs got to do is not beat themselves. Like, what? Well, it's just funny to me. Like Atlanta, everybody was high in Atlanta. They just had one of the most lopsided elimination games in the history of the league. I think they were down like 50 to 12 at one point in that game yesterday. Yeah. They were high in Atlanta. Okay. Well, well, Denver Nuggets, they have Yokech. They're eliminated. Okay. So don't we need to recalibrate things a little bit the way we're talking about the teams that I don't know are still playing basketball today, like the Cleveland Cavaliers. Can we say some good things about the team? I get it. They've done a lot of things. I've got to happen with you. You know what? You know, I think it's still around. You want me to say something good? James Harden, I think has been great for this team. I really do. He's only been here for a couple of months. I think he's the reason you're up three, two in this series. I agree with what the people had said. Like at first, I know you asked me this question. I was like, well, maybe it's got to be Mitchell. Now, you know, going back, I think it's got to be hardened. I think that you wouldn't you put the pole out there. What was the pole? How many people said it was hardened?

3:04Yeah. I got it right in front of me right now. I asked at the end of the show yesterday, who's been the best Cavalier in the first round? And James Harden, a runaway winner with over 1,000 votes, 77% of the votes, still two hours left on the pole. And then it's tight between Evan Mobley, who's number two and Don of the Mitchell number three. I think James Harden, and I know that there's some turnovers or some audio we're going to play here in just a moment. But I know that turnovers have been a bit of an issue, but if you've got a ball dominant guard and a guy that you want to create offense, yeah, he's going to have some turnovers, especially when they blitz them like they've been blitzing them here over these last few games. So I'm not going to be surprised that James Harden had a couple of turnovers. Had him more than a few turnovers if you really want, because I still think that he's the reason why you're up three, two in this series. There's a disagreement here, Nick Wilson on afternoon drive. He said, he don't care how much James Harden scores. He thinks he's been a bit of a problem in the last three games he's averaging seven turnovers a game. He's only averaging, I want to say just over six assists per game.

4:06I don't care how many points a game he scores, even rebounds like I got guys to do that. Your number one thing is running the offense. I don't think it's a coincidence that the offense really hit the skid in the two Toronto games while you're on the road and he had I want to say eight turnovers the first game and seven the next game or it might be struck that reverse it, but he had 15 turnovers in two games. Now the turnovers are a problem. No one's denying that the turnovers aren't an issue. I would just say I think he's outweighing the turnovers with what his play is like even the last night again. When you score 23, it's not just scoring 23, it's doing so on over 50% in the field. He's been highly efficient. I totally agree with Jonathan. I do care about him scoring points. I care about guys who score the basketball. That's what I care about. And I know that you had some turnovers there and yes, they got to clean them up as best they can. But on the other side of that, you have to also be charged with creating offense. He's creating offense for others. If they can't score the points, then he's got to find a way to score the points himself and I think he's been doing that. I think that that Donovan Mitchell yes has struggled. I know that he struggled in game four of this series.

5:09I understand these things, but damn it, when you look back on this series and see why they're up three two, I don't think they're up three two without James heart. I don't think that they're up in this series with with Darius Garland flat out. I don't know how anybody could say they would be. I can't believe that anybody would say and I hate to bring it on Darius, but I have to because it was a trade. I have to do this. Well, yeah, do you believe that they would be up three two in this series with Darius Garland on nine toes either not trying to knock him here, but I'm just trying to tell the truth here. I wish well to the young man, but this is the truth of the matter. Kind of in a series for him, exactly, exactly. He would have had all sorts of issues they would have they would have hunted him down in a way. And this is what I think Nick was missing in this conversation. And I had even some backup yesterday by one of the more prominent writers like podcasters Zach Lowe. Oh, here we go. I know we have a producer who's not too fond of exactly because apparently left him on red. Send some boots here because Lyme has got to lick something. It's okay. So we got to have Zach Lowe lick some boots.

6:11Go ahead. For Zach Lowe, send some boots for Lyme to lick. There you go. I know. I know we have a producer who because Zach won't get back to him. He's not happy with them, but he's one of the authority figures he talks about. The league doesn't mean it's gospel, but he watches things. He eats the fine to to comb the all that stuff like pouring over all the numbers. And I've got the numbers too. James Harden has not been a defensive liability in this series. In fact, I make the argument. And I've got numbers to back it up with his defensive rating and some very important defensive metrics. And he had to throw rebounding Nick says, I don't care about rebounding. You better because rebounding is what really hurt us in those two games in Toronto. Well, that's one of the possession defensive rebounds in the last game. Exactly. That's part of the defensive because the possession ends when you grab the basketball. Yes. Kenny Atkinson said in the post game after game five was winning possession battles. I mean, when you had the one game where they had what I think game four was it. Toronto had 23 more offensive possessions going holy hell that I wasn't excited with

7:12their pace. A play to be honest with you. But when you have another team that's up to that has 23 more possessions than you offensively, you wonder why an eight-point lead evaporates and an 11-point lead evaporates there. Look, they've just been flat out better with Harden on the court despite the turnover. Yes. Bring up the turnovers. They're halacious and it is one of the bad things about James Harden. But I think he in totality has definitely made up for the turnovers and then some. You can't just look at assist to turnovers. I'll go. Which one further? Yesterday. I'll go one further. And I know you look these things up, but I'm going to tell you right now, I watch in this series and I've had a couple of people say it. And I think they're right. We've had a couple of callers say it as well. I think that he's made up for a little bit of a lack of defense from Darryl from Don of the Mitchell. Yes. He played way better defense than Don of the Mitchell in this series. He's had active hands. He has not allowed guys like Ingram and Scotty Barnes and RJ Barrett to back him down. Other guys have they can't really budge old man Harden who looks like, what do you think

8:13he weighs right now? James Harden. We don't have to worry about that. 210. I've got, okay, we'll go with that. The off and on numbers, the metrics offensively, they are 115.8 in offensive rating with him without him 109. So there's a nine, a nine point deficit there defensive rating much better with James Harden on the floor. 106.9 without a 120. So a net rating positive of 8.8 overall. So you cannot find a metric that tells me this team is better with Harden off the floor. And just what's the eye test? Who do you trust right now? More James Harden. And that's with a guy turning the ball. I trust James Harden. Do you trust Donovan Mitchell or do you trust James Harden? I still trust Donovan Mitchell. I still, I'm just trusting James Harden more in this series. That's where I'm at right now. And the last part of this, which I think is the one thing that Nick and everybody, all the national guys who are criticizing Harden are missing. I use a term unafraid and I think that's important.

9:14There have been times, especially after losing those two games in Toronto where you had a lot of guys that looked afraid. You needed somebody like James Harden in game five to come out in the first quarter and be in takeover mode because you can't wait around forever for other guys to pick up the slack because you'll be eliminated. Just ask the Denver Nuggets right now. They're done. Their season's over. Caves are still playing basketball today because of James Harden. Todd Munkin, one hour from now in studio, head coach of your Browns. Up in five minutes. I asked Roger Gidele yesterday. Can we have a Super Bowl here in Cleveland? His answer is 701 on the fan.